The ballot to decide whether the Nottingham Business Improvement District (BID) will continue for another five year term from 2016 is now underway. The businesses and organisations that make up the city’s retail, leisure and, for the first time, office and education sectors, can now vote on whether the BID gets a second term during a month-long ballot period that finishes on Thursday 16 July.
The Nottingham BID came into existence with the merger of the retail and leisure business improvement districts in the city and has since been the force behind such initiatives as 48 Hours of Fashion, Food & Drink Fortnight, the Floral Trail, Purple Flag, Taxi Marshals, Best Bar None, deep street cleaning and the Licensed Premises Exclusion Notice Scheme, to name but a few. The BID is currently funded by a 1.41% annual levy on businesses within its zone that have a rateable value of above £15,000.
Moving into BID 2, this levy will be reduced to 1.25% and only be applicable to hereditaments with a greater rateable value of over £25,000. The Nottingham BID’s vision for its second term, should it be given the go ahead, is: “to transform Nottingham into a regional and national city of choice for shopping, leisure, work and study”. This vision will be realised by concentrating on four key areas of strategy: Promoted City, Independent City, Working City and Managed City. It will also ring-fence funds for the independent sector.
Jeff Allen, chairman of the Nottingham BID, said: “After five years of striving to make Nottingham the shopping and leisure destination of choice in the East Midlands, to maximise the city’s full trading potential and enhance its national reputation, we have reached a crucial point for the organisation. It is now down to our levy-payers to determine whether plans for BID 2 combined with what we have already achieved are enough to justify another five years. We are confident that this is the case and urge businesses that will be members of the BID in its second term vote yes.”
